


What You Want (and What Happens When You Get It)

by appending_fic



Category: The Sandman (Comics), Twelve Forever (Cartoon)
Genre: Corruption, Crossover, Fridge Horror, Gen, Headcanon, Transformation
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-08-10
Updated: 2019-08-10
Packaged: 2020-08-14 12:43:52
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 595
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20192500
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/appending_fic/pseuds/appending_fic
Summary: Endless is a world named not for its nature, but for its creators - there are places where the power of the Endless meld, where, for example, Delirium and Desire mix in equal measure.





	What You Want (and What Happens When You Get It)

Most people - well, most people who know about the Endless, including you, presumably, if you're here - think of the domains of the Endless as being discrete. Separate. That there is nothing of Desire in Dream's realm, or Despair in Delirium's. If it hasn't occurred to you that the presumption, as depicted here, is wrong, it is.

_Incredibly_ wrong. The domains of the Endless are boundless and infinite - or of the size preferred by their masters and personifications. But boundless though they are, there are - not boundaries, exactly, but - _gradients_. Places where the essence of the Endless' realms mix to create new worlds, strange realms who are shaped by the will of two or more of the Endless.

Some of these are lawless places, attended to by none of their rightful rulers. Others are managed jointly, with varying levels of harmony.

The realms of Dream and Desire have always been...contentious.

But this is about none of them. This is about the realm that Delirium had shaped, once, with the aid of her sibling (brother, sister, everything in-between and outside such definitions). A realm strange and wonderful that lures and entices its visitors with a dangerous, destructive desire (Desire is _all_ desire - from the most innocent wants to the desperate lusts of the most depraved).

Desire has not had much to do with this realm since they shaped it, Delirium recalls (or thinks she recalls, or imagines completely - it is not hard to befuddle Delirium, except when her madness opens the way to crystal clarity, and then woe to you for seeking to mislead one of the Endless, who are not known for their mercy). Delirium, though, has returned every now and again, discovering what has been made of it by its latest visitors.

Because it is Desire's realm, it responds to the desires of humans who reside there. Because it is Delirium's realm, it does not respond to the _conscious_ desires of humans who reside there. And because its visitors are (almost) exclusively children, it is volatile and dangerous.

Delirium is pretty certain she was last here a century ago. There had been Indians and mermaids and pirates, because it had been responding to the desires of a boy who believed the world was made for him to have adventures in.

And there was...something she'd done here. Before that, certainly - or after, and she'd forgotten exactly what.

She doesn't bother asking you, because you wouldn't remember. If you'd been here - if you'd known it by some fantastic name, had explored a magical realm as you skirted the boundary between childhood and adulthood - you would have relegated the memories to the fanciful imagination of your childhood self.

Because - and this is what Desire did when they helped shape the realm - the Endless' Island is a trap. _And_ a gift.

If the Endless' Island was shaped to your desire, it was everything you believed childhood could be (it was not cruel, but it was honest). No one would blame you for finding solace in that, or forgetting yourself in its timelessness.

Sometimes Delirium buried gummy fish or stars on the island when she visited, and people would crawl out of the earth from those plots. But every time Delirium returned to hers and Desire's realm, she found new residents, people who might have been there since the beginning.

Humans could _exist_ here, but only strange, alien creatures could live here. If you _truly_ didn't want to grow up, after seeing all the beauty and horror of childhood, you could let the Endless' Island into your heart.


End file.
